In 1978, South Korean screen idol Choi Eun-hee and her frequent collaborator and ex-husband, Shin Sang-ok, were abducted by agents of Kim Jong-il and brought to Pyongyang, where the dictator – a huge fan – wanted to use them to make North Korean cinema the envy of the world. They escaped in 1986, but not before making seven features.

One of the most bizarre stories I’ve ever heard, it’s already been the subject of a terrific book: Paul Fischer’s A Kim Jong-Il Production, which reads like an absurdist thriller.

Fischer’s book, the tale of estranged lovers forced back together to create art at the whim of a lunatic with absolute power, will make a crackling movie someday. The Lovers And The Despot, on the other hand, is pretty dry.

Filmmakers Robert Cannan and Ross Adam take everything about their stranger-than--fiction narrative very, very seriously, illustrating it with a blend of sinister music and stylized re-enactments of the sort we’ve seen in dozens of other docs.

It’s a very safe way to tell a story that cries out for a more daring approach. Even Choi, whose on-camera interview gives the doc its spine, has now come to realize how absurd the experience was.